What is Happiness 5.6 (Patreon)

What is Happiness?
Arc 5 Chapter 6: Nine’s Stage

-VB-

I slept.

The night passed by without any more incident. I was sure that most of it had to do with the Nine being shocked by the sudden deaths of their members and my message to the PRT, one that I made once I got home and had access to a phone, about the Nine’s present presence in the city.

I assumed that they would contact the affiliated and independent heroes, rogues, and other villains, which freed me to go back and sleep and I did exactly that because randomly attacking someone after spending hours fucking my leggy girl took more out of than I expected, especially more so since I took a detour to lose them.

I slept even though I knew that the Nine (now six, not counting any of Bonesaw’s meances) was in town. Why? Because even though Jack Slash had to be malding over losing both his pet Bio-Tinker and bitch Shaker, he had no way to find me nor could he spare the time to do so after I alerted the entire city to his presence.

Soon, villains and heroes alike would roam the streets on my behalf to fight them, and once they had been whittled down enough, I would come in and end the Nine forever.

It was a vague plan, but what else could I do?

-VB-

I woke up early in the morning and made breakfast for us all. The smell of fried eggs, bacon, tomato, mushrooms, and beans lured in my girls like bees to the flower.

“Good morning, Sabah, Lisa, and Taylor. How nice of you to join me for breakfast!”

Lisa stopped and stared at me. She narrowed her eyes. “Okay. What did you do? Out with it,” she demanded as she sat down.

Sabah and Taylor did, too, but they had more reserved reactions. I don’t act cheerfully often, after all.

“The Slaughterhouse Nine are in the city-”

They paled.

“But I managed to kill two of their trickier members: Bonesaw and Shatterbird.”

Lisa stared at me with creased eyes and flat lips before she closed them and sighed. “He’s serious,” she grumbled and then threw a glare at me. “You couldn’t warn us?”

I shrugged. “I didn’t see a reason to.”

“There won’t be a plague and none of the glasses will shatter. I’m fine with this,” Sabah spoke up as she started eating. “Besides, you told us all that you ‘see’ what happens in your territory, right?”

I nodded.

“And it’s big enough for you to notice that the Nine were nearby?”

“Yes.”

“Then that’s good enough for me. I think, though, I will be staying in the house for the foreseeable future.”

“... Are you going to go out and fight?” Taylor asked me.

“Of course,” I replied. “I did a good job riling up the city in preparation for the Nine’s arrival. I would join the fight even if it’s only for the money.”

Taylor frowned at my words, and I shrugged it off. I gave my honest answer, and she knew that I was not a hero. I was a villain. Worse, I was a Master who made her and others like her love me. Sure, I loved them back because of how my power worked, but it didn’t change the fact that I was a villainous Master.

“I’m going to go out as a hero.”

“Okay, but you know that you have to be careful.”

Her hands drifted down to her very slowly growing belly.

She was four months pregnant right now. If she decided to go out, then she needed to understand that she wasn’t putting just her life at risk.

I knew that capes were driven to fight, but this was more than just her.

It was about our first kid.

She looked stricken.

“... I hate this.”

Lisa sighed. “Just so you know, I’m staying here, too, and I do need a guard while I keep an eye out for the entire city.”

Thank you, Lisa.

“How … what kind of unnecessary risks are you going to take?” she then asked me.

“I’m not?” I replied in turn. “I ambushed the Nine yesterday, and got a scratch because of Jack Slash and his parahuman radar. Even then, I did my part and left before they could retaliate."

Lisa continued to stare at me and then sighed. "Whatever. I'm just going to play at being our console," she grumbled and then reached behind the couch. She brought out wireless earbuds. I didn't know Earth Bet had that kind of normal tech for sale. "Tinkertech, not normal tech," she corrected me. "Bought them with my money, so don't lose it!"

There was one for each of us.

When she came around to give me one, I gave her a kiss on the cheeks. "Thanks, love."

She blushed.

"So how exactly are we going to keep the Nine out? They have more people than us," Taylor spoke up. Hey, when did she finish her breakfast? "And how do we keep them from wrecking our home?"

"I can be a distraction," I replied but glares from all three of my girls shot that idea down lime the Hindenburg. "How about I alert the other capes of their location? And Taylor can keep track of them if they enter her range?"

Taylor's range was bigger than my territory, but my territory had the advantage of - thanks to a multitude of powers - alerting me to hostile intruders.

"We don't have a way to fight Crawler and Siberian…" Sabah pointed out. "Er should 't give away information on our whereabouts as much as possible."

"That's basic," Lisa snorted. "We're going to be doing more than that, though."

The rest of us stared at her, waiting for her to complete her reply.

She smirked.

"With Nine in town, the villains are going to want to meet up. Since you are already known for not really caring about Unwritten Rules…"

"I can hide nearby and then ambush the Nine if they show up."

"Exactly."